Can Lyme disease be spread between sexual partners?
With Lyme disease, knowing that it's a spirochite like syphilis. Do you believe that it can be spread between sexual partners if the Lyme disease Borrelia has a high count, not fully treated?
Yes. There have been cases reported that there's transmission, between sexual partners. It definitely crosses the placenta. If you have a gravid mother who's not given prophylactic antibiotics, the spirochetes can pass through the placenta into the fetus, and then you have a child born with congenital Lyme. Sexual transmission probably happens at somewhere around a 1% risk rate of that.
I'm wondering if there are probably other yet-to-be-discovered or confirmed ways to transmit. Some theorize that it can be via fleas, mosquitoes, or other arthropods, like spider bites. Very probable, but maybe yet to be proven in the United States. There may be other modalities of transmission that we're yet to be made aware of.